Sunday, 30 January 2011

As the latest bouts of "political unrest" break out in the Muslim world, which threaten to put the pro-sharia Muslim Brotherhood in charge of previously (relatively) secular, if oppressive states, it is important not to forget that the danger of such things happening in Europe is on the horizon, also.

This piece at the International Analyst Network highlights the growing threat of "radical Islam" (i.e. Islam) in Greece. The article notes, among other things, the significant role of Turkey in importing a massive Muslim underclass into Europe:

The role of the emerging Islamic power of Turkey into managing the en mass movement from Islamic countries into the EU has been highlighted numerously over the past few months and it is of interest to make a note of the fact that regular flights are being organized between Rabat in Morocco and Algiers in Algeria to Istanbul so as to bring a sizeable number of nationals from those countries to Turkey and transport them thereafter to Greece-Bulgaria, en route to the EU.

The Islamic governance in Turkey has lifted travel regulations and visas with those countries, whilst it has no visa with Iran, thus promoting in effect the movement of Afghans and Pakistanis, as well as, Iranians into Europe.

It is important to note that mental Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that the assimilation of Muslim immigrants into European society is a "crime against humanity". The explicit purpose, therefore, of encouraging mass Muslim immigration into Europe is colonisation, and the substitution of the West's Judeo-Christian, post-Enlightenment values with Islamic ones, facilitating the first step in the transformation of Europe into the base for the new caliphate, as envisioned by the currently Turkish-led Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

The piece also provides evidence of the myriad negative effects of this Muslim immigation policy in Greece:

Since late 2008, there have been three major cases that show the tendency of creating a rising network of a quasi-radical Islamic element in the Greek society. The first was in the December 2008 riots, were approximately 50% of the people arrested were Pakistanis and Afghanis arrested, some of them claiming to the authorities that were paid in order to participate in the violent demonstrations.

The second development was the May 2009 so-called "Koran demonstrations", when a multicultural group of various Islamic communities in Athens took to the street allegedly claiming that the Police desecrated the Koran during a routine search in the pockets of a Syria street vendor.

It was later revealed that this particular individual was lying to the authorities and the press and was involved in various illegal actions including robberies. What was also proven, was that a network of NGO's were able to coordinate and finance the mobilization of the illegal Muslim community in Athens and claims have been made that they are financed by the organized crime which employs the desperate masses of Muslims in the country in conjunction with the intelligence apparatus of Islamic countries in Greece.

A third phase was the mass prayer of some 10,000 Muslims in the centre of Athens in October 2010, without attaining the necessary state permission for that. Amongst the organizers they were individuals associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and an Imam was brought by Egypt to commemorate the ending of the Ramadan.

Islam is on the rise everywhere, and while we may shudder to imagine what a Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egypt may look like, what is of perhaps even more concern is what Europe already looks like. Many derided Bat Ye'or when her provocative and important book Eurabia came out, but each year that goes by proves her to be absolutely correct in her analysis.

Sunday, 23 January 2011

Azra Mustafa, just one of many Pakistani Christians who has converted to Islam to save herself and her children

This piece by Rick Westhead at The Star is that rare thing these days: a fearless, honest piece of journalism that offers a politically incorrect but accurate assessment of the issues.

In disturbing detail, it outlines the mainstream, "socially acceptable" persecution of Christians in Pakistan, and reveals that increasing numbers of Christians are converting to Islam in the country in order to avoid the hellish persecution they are suffering daily at the hands of Muslims. Westhead provides example after example demonstrating this chilling reality, but what speaks perhaps loudest of all is this passage about Pakistan's reaction to the jihad murder of Salman Taseer, the moderate Muslim governor who was killed for opposing the country's blasphemy laws:

Pakistan’s lawyers, praised just three years ago for saving this country’s independent judiciary, showered Taseer’s assassin with rose petals on his way into court. A rally to celebrate his death attracted 40,000 in Karachi and thousands more posted tributes to the killer on their Facebook accounts.

“To be honest, I felt good when I heard he was dead; we got rid of him,” said Raghib Naeemia, an iman at Jamia Naeemia. “It’s very clear in the Holy Qur’an that if you say something nasty and harsh about the Holy Prophet, then you become a maloun (cursed) person. And we are supposed to round up those people and kill them very harshly.”

The misery faced every day by Pakistan's Christians - as well as those in Egypt and elsewhere - is a stark reality, and Britain's Baroness Warsi, who recently lamented a fictional "Islamophobia" that has now apparently become "socially acceptable" in the UK, ought to direct her clueless indignation to the places where the real victimised minorities are - the homelands of her own co-religionists.

And incidentally (or rather, extremely relevantly), this spate of fearful conversions by Pakistani Christians resembles - not coincidentally - the expansion of Islam during its early periods of conquest. As has been meticulously documented by pioneering scholars such as Bat Ye'or, the harsh, demeaning conditions of the dhimma - the debasing second-class status imposed upon non-Muslim subjects of newly-subjugated Islamic states - caused many Jews, Christians and Hindus to convert to Islam in order to escape the worst of the persecution, which included payment of obscenely high taxes (jizya and kharaj) that Muslims did not have to pay, enforced dress codes, and prohibition of public worship.

None of this is history. It is still happening today in Pakistan, and all over the Muslim world. By and large, Western human rights groups have abandoned the beleagured Christians of the Middle East to their fate. This is to their eternal shame.

Suspending interfaith dialogue with the Vatican on Thursday came in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks on the status of Christians in the Middle East.

Pope Benedict condemned attacks on churches that killed dozens of people in Egypt, Iraq and Nigeria this month, saying they showed the need to adopt effective measures to protect religious minorities....

On Wednesday, Arab leaders at a summit in Egypt voiced their “total rejection” of foreign interference in Arab affairs over Christian minorities.

So it is unacceptable for "foreigners" to interfere in Muslim persecution of Christians. Got it. But what about this, from an Islam Online article about the Swiss minaret ban back in December 2009:

Egypt's Al-Azhar, the highest seat of religious learning in the Sunni world, also denounced the ban.

"This will have negative impacts on Muslims and we urge the Swiss government to abolish it," Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi told Swiss Ambassador in Cairo.

Friday, 14 January 2011

The Hamas-supporting Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it will remove a poster from the group's website promoting an upcoming conference that encourages people (i.e. Muslims) not to talk to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The poster, which appeared on the website of CAIR’s California chapter, features a sinister-looking FBI agent with the headlines “Build a Wall of Resistance” and “Don’t Talk to the FBI.”

Nothing says "moderate Muslims" quite as well as that.

Of course, CAIR were quick to find the REAL culprit in all this - Islamophobia:

[CAIR spokesman Ibrahim] Hooper conceded the poster “crosses the line,” but refused to renounce the artwork and blamed critics for fomenting what he called a manufactured controversy.

“The entire American-Muslim community is under the microscope right now with a cottage industry of Muslim bashers,” he said. “We’re used to this kind of attack by the Islamophobic hate machine and in this case there is some justification in terms of the possibility of misinterpretation of this poster.”

Because "Don't talk to the FBI" is a statement that is easily misinterpreted. And in any case, hate crimes against Muslims in America are actually relatively rare.

As for the content of the conference, Hooper said if anything negative is said about the FBI, it won’t come from their group.

“We have a consistent policy of positive and constructive engagement with law enforcement officials,” he said.

Monday, 10 January 2011

It's not all about doom and gloom here at Eye On Islam. Occasionally I like to feature some more uplitfting stories that provide a small amount of hope that the totalitarian strictures of orthodox Islam aren't all-pervasive.

Muslims turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass Thursday night, offering their bodies, and lives, as “shields” to Egypt’s threatened Christian community.

Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

There is a hell of a long way to go in Egypt, as well as throughout the Muslim world. For as many thousands of Muslims that may seek to protect the embattled Christians of their countries, there are just as many, if not more, who will happily attack those Christians' churches and call for their execution under draconian blaphemy laws. These tough realities, however, should not dissuade us from applauding those Muslims who have now probably put their own lives in danger by standing up for the human rights of non-Muslim minorities in their lands.

Saturday, 8 January 2011

"Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.” ~ The peaceful Sufi, Ayatollah Khomeini

This article at the NY Times presents Sufism as a totally moderate, peaceful form of Islam that is being persecuted by "hard-liners".

The piece describes this idyllic picture:

In Pakistan’s heartland, holy men with bells tied to their feet close their eyes and sway to the music. Nearby, rose petals are tossed on tombstones. Free food is distributed to devotees.

This peaceful tableau is part of Sufism, Pakistan’s most popular brand of Islam, which attracts millions of worshipers at about a dozen major festivals throughout the year. Each day, thousands visit shrines dedicated to Sufi saints.

Unfortunately, the authors leave a few things out. While it is certainly true that many orthodox Muslims regard Sufis - who make up only a small percentage of the world's Muslims - as heretics and persecute them accordingly, it is also true that Sufism has never been particularly separable from what is often termed "radical Islam". For starters, despite Sufism apparently being "Pakistan's most popular brand of Islam", there is widespread support among Muslims in the country for harsh blasphemy laws, and a Pew poll in 2009 found "broad support for harsh [sharia-based] punishments: 78% favor death for those who leave Islam; 80% favor whippings and cutting off hands for crimes like theft and robbery; and 83% favor stoning adulterers."

Sufism is more "mystical" than other forms of Islam, but there is nothing intrinsic to it that denies the violence and intolerance that is a hallmark of orthodox Islam. The greatest Sufi of all time, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d.1111), was an avid proponent of the same offensive, expansionist jihad favoured by the majority of orthodox Islamic jurists of his era:

“One must go on jihad (i.e. warlike razzias or raids) at least once a year...one may use catapults against them [non-Muslims] when they are in a fortress, even if among them are women and children. One may set fire to them and/or drown them...If a person of the ahl al-kitab [People of the Book, that is Jews and Christians] is enslaved, his marriage is automatically revoked...One may cut down their trees...One must destroy their useless books. Jihadists may take as booty whatever they decide...they may steal as much food as they need...”

He also promoted the oppressive subjugation of non-Muslims as dhimmis under Islamic rule:

“The dhimmi is obliged not to mention Allah or his Apostle...Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians must pay the poll tax...on offering up the jizya, the dhimmi must hang his head while the official takes hold of his head and hits the dhimmi on the protuberant bone beneath his ear...They are not permitted to ostentatiously exhibit their wine or church bells...their houses may not be higher than the Muslim's, no matter how low that is. The dhimmi may not ride an elegant horse or mule; he may ride a donkey only if the saddle is of wood. He may not walk on the good part of the road. The dhimmis have to wear an identifying patch on their clothing, even women, and even in the public baths...dhimmis must hold their tongue.”

Sufi clerics such as Sirhindi (d.1624) were influential in fomenting and leading vicious, fanatical jihad campaigns in India that resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of Hindus. In the modern day, many influential Muslim leaders who are deemed by most people to be profoundly "radical", including Hasan al-Banna and the Ayatollah Khomeini, also had a great interest in Sufism. In modern times, a Sufi jihadi squadron was formed in Iraq in 2005, and the 2004 Beslan massacre, in which over 300 schoolchildren were murdered by Islamic jihadists in Russia, was orchestrated by a Naqshbandi Sufi, Shamil Basayev.

In short, aside from the beautiful tableau of men with bells tied to their feet, Sufi Islam is not much different from mainstream Islam in any way that should comfort non-Muslims who don't want to be slaughtered like cattle for their mere unbelief.

Thursday, 6 January 2011

Ignore the first half of this article from Associated Press, which is devoted to the Pakistani economy. Skip to paragraph ten, where we learn that as the man who assassinated Punjabi governor Salman Taseer for opposing the country's draconian blasphemy laws arrived at the court for his trial, "Around 100 Islamist students chanted slogans praising Qadri as he arrived at the court in an armored vehicle that had been showered with rose petals. 'Bravery, bravery! Qadri, Qadri!' they shouted."

Also:

An influential group of Muslim scholars affiliated with a historically moderate strain of Islam has also come out in support of the suspected killer and proclaimed that nobody should mourn Taseer's death.

That "moderate" group is Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan, which consists of over 500 Islamic scholars, who described the policeman who gunned down Taseer as a "Ghazi", or Islamic warrior, and have warned against any expression of sympathy for the slain PPP leader, saying it would in itself be tantamount to an act of blasphemy.

During Taseer's funeral yesterday, the imam of Lahore's Shahi Masjid and the cleric of the mosque at Governor's House refused to lead the prayer, apparently in protest against the governor's moderate views.

Isn't it odd that so many adherents of the Religion of Peace, including the most learned scholars and clerics, keep forgetting how wonderful and tolerant Islam is? Why is that?

The influential governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Salman Taseer, has died after being shot by one of his bodyguards in the capital, Islamabad.

Mr Taseer, a senior member of the Pakistan People's Party, was shot when getting into his car at a market.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the guard had told police that he killed Mr Taseer because of the governor's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law.

Many were angered by his defence of a Christian woman sentenced to death....

At a news conference, Mr Malik said: "The police guard who killed him says he did this because Mr Taseer recently defended the proposed amendments to the blasphemy law."....

Mr Taseer made headlines recently by appealing for the pardon of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Friends of the governor say he knew he was risking his life by speaking out....

The interior minister later identified the murder suspect as Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri, who he said had escorted the governor from the city of Rawalpindi on Tuesday as he had done on five or six previous occasions.

Mr Qadri was 26 years old and from Barakhao, a town on the outskirts of Islamabad, he added. He was recruited as a police constable, and transferred to the Elite Force after commando training in 2008.

"Salman Taseer is a blasphemer and this is the punishment for a blasphemer," Mr Qadri said in comments broadcast on Dunya television....

Indeed it is. Take, for example, this scholarly opinion by the influential Qadi Iyad (d.1149):

Know that all who curse Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or blame him or attribute imperfection to him in his person, his lineage, his deen [religion] or any of his qualities, or alludes to that or its like by any means whatsoever, whether in the form of a curse or contempt or belittling him or detracting from him or finding fault with him or maligning him, the judgement regarding such a person is the same as the judgement against anyone who curses him. He is killed [emphasis added] as we shall make clear. This judgement extends to anything which amounts to a curse or disparagement. We have no hesitation concerning this matter, be it a clear statement or allusion.

The same applies to anyone who curses him, invokes against him, desires to harm him, ascribes to him what does not befit his position or jokes about his mighty affair with foolish talk, satire, disliked words or jies, or reviles him because of any affliction or trial which happened to him or disparages him, because of any of the permissible and well-known human events which happened to him. All of this is the consensus of the 'ulama' [scholars] and the imams of fatwa from the time of the Companions until today."

Most Islamic legal theorists and scholars agree. The only major school of thought that does not is the Hanafi school, but this is not because of any kind of "Islamic tolerance". Rather, the assumption is that blasphemy is an inherent part of disbelief, and since unbelievers are already being punished by being made dhimmis, further punishment is not necessary. Hardly open-minded, really.

These are the realities of Islam, and it's not just Christians who are suffering because of them. As this story demonstrates, Muslims are as well. But that probably won't stop them from blaming the Jews anyway.

Monday, 3 January 2011

European Union funds going to ''countries which do not collaborate'' in protecting Christians and in preventing attacks ''should be reduced if not eliminated entirely''.

Did a European politican really say that?

Yes, and it wasn't Geert Wilders either. It was Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, speaking in the wake of the murderous attack on a church in Egypt that killed 21 Christians on New Year's Day.

Of course, it's not just the Muslim world's treatment of Christians that we should be dealing with. Aid should also be cut off from any Muslim country that teaches its children to hate Jews on its regional TV stations (as does Palestine), and executes those who "blaspheme" against Islam (as does Pakistan). But to hear a senior European politician propose something this outlandishly sensible and morally admirable is still very welcome.

Whether anyone will listen to Frattini - who added that "'Italy cannot stand alone, isolated in the worldwide battle in the world to make sure that Christians are not persecuted" - is another matter. Bat Ye'or has chronicled how the EU long ago sold its soul to the Devil - or, analogously, the Arab League, in her must-read book Eurabia. Still, Signore Frattini's moral clarity and straight-talking has to be commended.